Chocolate Glaze Haze...

This picture will look familiar to you if you use melting chocolate in your baking at all. These are small chocolate wafers, maybe an inch in diameter, that are melted down and used to make candy or to drizzle over finished creations. As you know I was playing Martha Stewart this weekend and did a lot of baking....really, you need to stop laughing when I say that. Anyway, I had what was probably a 5 pound bag of these chocolate wafers and maybe half of the bag was left at the end of my baking frenzy. I mistakenly left the bag, in a plastic grocery bag, sitting on one of my kitchen chairs. In the morning, the bag was still there, untouched, and I had completely forgotten about it. As is my usual routine, I fed the dogs, let them out, let them back in and went to begin getting ready for work. Now, you know how sometimes you hear something that is out of place, but it doesn't occur to you that the sound is out of place right away...it's just kind of background noise? Well, I kept hearing a crinkling sound on and off but it didn't occur to me that everyone else was still asleep and this noise was out of place until it was too late. I suddenly panicked and realized the dogs must be into something and raced to the kitchen, just as Sheba is lifting her head out of a now nearly empty plastic grocery bag on the kitchen floor. Oh yeah, I would say at least 2 pounds of chocolate...gone! I didn't know for sure if both had indulged or just Sheba and anyone who has dogs knows chocolate is a big no-no...it's supposed to be like poison for dogs. I ran to the computer to do a quick Google search and quickly found out that the toxic level for dogs is (all you dog owners, write this down!) about one ounce per pound of dog weight. Well each of my dogs weighs about 50 pounds so I breathed a sigh of relief because I was pretty sure they didn't eat 50 ounces of chocolate, although I'm not good with weights and measures so I couldn't be positive.....so I kept reading. It said to watch for the signs of toxicity which included, of course, vomiting and diarrhea. Just the thing to perk up my morning - cleaning up after stupid dogs! Not even a half hour later there was, not to be gross, a heaping pile of chocolate wafers that had been "deposited" on my kitchen floor. So the decision was made to quarantine the dogs to the kitchen until we knew for sure they were both feeling better. One of them, or both have been getting sick throughout the day and we thought they were done with it earlier this evening. We went out for a nice visit with friends, came home late, and had nice surprises waiting for me all over the kitchen. Just when you think it's safe to call it a night....